April 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
TEA AS A BEVERAGE. 
Use n China or proctlain pot. If you do use 
metal, let it be tin, new, bright and clean; never 
use it when the tin is worn out and the iron exposed. 
If you do, you are playing chemist, and forming a 
tannate or teu-ate of iron. Use black tea. Green tea, 
when good, is kept at home. What goes abroad is 
bad, very bad and horrible. Besides containing the 
203 adulterations the Chinese philanthropist puts up 
for the outsidu barbarian, it is always pervaded by 
copper dust from the dirty curing pans of the 
growers. Infuse your tea; don't boil it. Place one 
tea-spoonful of tea in the pot and pour over it one 
and one-half cups of boiling water — that is water 
really boiling. If your tea is poor, use more. It is 
cheaper, though, to buy good tea at the outset. Put 
your pot on the back part of the stove, carefully 
covered, so that it shall not lose its heat, and the 
tea its bouquet. Let it remain there five minutes 
and then drink it. Drink your tea plain. Don't add 
milk or sugar. Tea-brokers and tea tasters never do. 
Milk contains fibrin, albumin or some other stuff, 
and the tea, a delicate amouut of tannin. Mixing 
the two makes tho liquid turbid. This turpidity, if I 
remember the cyclopedia aright, is tannate of fibrin, 
or leather. — Farmers' Review. 
4 
THE GLAM TBEE. 
The trees which, growing on tho roalsides in 
oertaln places, form those beautiful avenues that 
give the roads such a peculiarly pleasant feature in 
this country, have many and varied uses, and were 
at one time made the subject of a lengthy report 
to Government by one of our energetic residents. 
While the leaves are infused and given in diarrhoea 
as an astringent, the bark is cork-like and used in boat 
building and tho wood from its hardness is valued 
for making fishing stakes and for other purposes. They 
belong to the Oajuputei family, and some believe that 
the much-priced oil may be obtained from the leaves 
if these are subjected to the proper process for obtaining 
It — a complicated method not understood in these parts. 
Five hundred thousand plants have lately been sent 
to Singaporo from here to be planted along some of 
the roads. They grow thickly and very readily along 
fresh water swamps and paddy fields. The superin- 
tendent of the Botanical Gardens, Singapore, is of 
opinion that the tree is not at present properly and 
fully utilized, and that the oil can be extracted 
from the forests of the trees to be found hero at a 
rate which will give a good margiu of profit. 
Kumphius states that the leaves are gathered on a 
warm day and placed in a sack, whore they become 
hot and damp. They are then macerated in water 
and left to ferment for a night, and afterwnrds 
submitted to distillation. Two sackfuls of tho leaves 
yield only about three tluid drachms of the oil ('ISO 
drops). Lesson, who visited Borneo and the Molucca 
Islands in 1H23, has thus described the method there 
adopted for obtaining tho oil : — The leaves arc gathered 
in the latter end of September, and put into the 
cucurbit of a copper alembic surmounted by a neck 
terminated by a oapita] without a refrigeratory, and 
a sufficient quantity of water is then added. By 
distillation this liquid is made to traverse a worm 
immersed in a hogshead rilled with water, and is 
collected in a vessel, l'.ickmore, an American traveller 
who visited the s ime islands in lSlV), also states that 
the oil is obtained by submitting the leaves to distil- 
lation with water, the operation be ing conducted in 
tho moHt primitive manner. — Malacca Chronicle. 
♦ 
PLANTING IN BURMAE : TAVOY PLANTATION. 
It will be remembered that Mr. J. I). Watson, a 
Ceylon planter of much ami varied experience, com- 
menced 100)6 .'tor I yarn ago a plantation on rather n 
large scale on tho bills near Tnvoy. Several other* made 
similar experiments about the same time-, but ouo by 
one they have dropped olf leaving him alone m his glory. 
Ho has an estate partly granted and partly purchased 
of about GOO acres, Ho begau pluuttug in lSei und 
»7 
he has already opened 93 acres. He is very proud and 
fond of his plantation, and ho works with heart anil 
brains. He reports that as the results of his three years' 
work, he finds that Arabian Coffeo is a failure, but 
Siberian* Coffee is a decided success. Mr. Watson got 
the Government Prize of K1,000 for the first 
hundredweight of Coffee grown in and shipped from 
Burma to England. In tea he has found the three 
varieties — Hybrid, Indigenous aud Chinese — all equally 
successful. The trees are flourishing and give great 
promise. To give profitable shade aud to fill up the 
ground, Mr. Watson has planted largely tho Bixot 
Eoelana or Anaulta, which sells for dye manufacture in 
the Homo markets at about 3s 9d. per lb. f Divi Divi, 
used for tauning, is also a very successful cultivation, 
and so are the Castor oil trees, and the Peruvian Ceara 
Rubber. Of Cocoa, which is one of Mr. Watson's 
specialities, he finds that Forestera aDd Caruk* are a 
decided success if grown under suitable shade. 
Besides the above, which will, nojdoubt ,in due time 
amply repay the cost and labor spent upon them, Mr. 
Watson finds it profitable to cultivate Oranges, Plant- 
ains of sevoral varieties, Leechees, Coconut, Betel-nut, 
Penang Jacks, Dooriaus and Burmese grapes. These all 
grow remarkably well, aud yield immediate profit. No 
visitor to Tavoy should omit a visit to this plantation, 
Mr. Watson is at his best when he is shewing his guest 
over his garden and explaining the uatural history of 
his trees and shrubs. He has hitherto had many difficul- 
ties to oontend with, but he ha9 overcome them and he 
oau feel that success is crowning his efforts and persever- 
ance. But how many hillside and verdaut fields are 
therein Burma lying as waste lands now, which might 
become flourishing plantations and fruitful gardens if 
only such men of indomitable energy and ability as 
Mr. J. D. Watson could be found to work them. — Kan- 
goon Gazette. 
PLANTING IN TRAVANCORE. 
(To the Editor of the Tropical Agriculturist.) 
Sir,— I have read Mr. Cox's cheery report on plant- 
ing iu this couutry in your T. A. for February, without, 
however, sharing iu bis exultation. How is it that Mr. 
Cox has only given us hearsay information? He him- 
self is the oldest tea plauter in South Travancore, for 
when the rest of us went in for cinchona, Mr. Cox re- 
frained front doiug so ; but went iu for tea instead. I re- 
member being at his buugalow about 5 years ago and 
he was then curing tea from a 12-acre Bold of his. This 
field must now be over 7 years aud therefore in full 
bearing. Now it would be interesting to know what that 
particular field has done in the way of yield for the past 
two years. Talking about tea fetching 2s. and 3s. 
the pound carries uo conviction : the brokers' reports 
are open to all and a glance will show that Travaueore 
has nothing to boast of iu the way of prices. It is not, 
however, the prices that wo are afraid of ; in quality we 
should produce teas equal to Ceylon but not any better. 
It is the yield we are anxious about and on this head Mr. 
Cox is silent. I remember about two years ago an old 
Ceylon planter, now a planter iu this couutry, writing 
to the T. A. to the effect that an estate in this neigh- 
bourhood yielded 800 lb of tea per acre for past year 
and adding " so you see we run Ceylon pretty close." 
I happened, shortly after this appeared, to be at the 
only estate in this mini's neighbourhood then giving 
leaf, and was assured that 8(X) lb of iff/ leaf pox aero 
was the utmost got from the estate in one year. 
Whether this is running Ceylon pretty close or not, 
I will not take upon myself to say ; but no estate in 
Central or South Travancore has topped this amount 
up to date. I was told, however, the other day by a 
loan ma given to i \aggcratiou, that 100 lb per acre of 
made tea paid all rik'ht, and s i, anything got ov. r that 
• "Siberian" cotfee would cast that inrn avi), the 
black swan into the shade. But the misprint occur* 
incessantly, and persons not aware of tho existence of 
I.iberian coffee must wonder what part of Siberia pro- 
duces colfce. — Ki>. 7 I . 
t La*t repirtsi did not give as manv pence per Rv — 
Kd. T. A. 
